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TechnoratiNot All Would Put a Heroic Sheen on Thompson's Watergate Role
WASHINGTON -- The day before Senate Watergate Committee minority counsel Fred Thompson made the inquiry that launched him into the national spotlight -- asking an aide to President Nixon whether there was a White House taping system -- he telephoned Nixon's lawyer.
Thompson tipped off the White House that the committee knew about the taping system and would be making the information public. In his all-but-forgotten Watergate memoir, "At That Point in Time," Thompson said he acted with "no authority" in divulging the committee's knowledge of the tapes, which provided the evidence that led to Nixon's resignation. It was one of many Thompson leaks to the Nixon team, according to a former investigator for Democrats on the committee, Scott Armstrong , who remains upset at Thompson's actions.
"Thompson was a mole for the White House," Armstrong said in an interview. "Fred was working hammer and tong to defeat the investigation of finding out what happened to authorize Watergate and find out what the role of the president was."
Asked about the matter this week, Thompson -- who is preparing to run for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination -- responded via e-mail without addressing the specific charge of being a Nixon mole: "I'm glad all of this has finally caused someone to read my Watergate book, even though it's taken them over thirty years."
The view of Thompson as a Nixon mole is strikingly at odds with the former Tennessee senator's longtime image as an independent-minded prosecutor who helped bring down the president he admired. Indeed, the website of Thompson's presidential exploratory committee boasts that he "gained national attention for leading the line of inquiry that revealed the audio-taping system in the White House Oval Office." It is an image that has been solidified by Thompson's portrayal of a tough-talking prosecutor in the television series "Law and Order."
But the story of his role in the Nixon case helps put in perspective Thompson's recent stance as one of the most outspoken proponents of pardoning I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney. Just as Thompson once staunchly defended Nixon, Thompson urged a pardon for Libby, who was convicted in March of obstructing justice in the investigation into who leaked a CIA operative's name.
Thompson declared in a June 6 radio commentary that Libby's conviction was a "shocking injustice . . . created and enabled by federal officials." Bush on Monday commuted Libby's 30-month sentence, stopping short of a pardon.
The intensity of Thompson's remarks about Libby is reminiscent of how he initially felt about Nixon. Few Republicans were stronger believers in Nixon during the early days of Watergate.
Thompson, in his 1975 memoir, wrote that he believed "there would be nothing incriminating" about Nixon on the tapes, a theory he said "proved totally wrong."
"In retrospect it is apparent that I was subconsciously looking for a way to justify my faith in the leader of my country and my party, a man who was undergoing a violent attack from the news media, which I thought had never given him fair treatment in the past," Thompson wrote. "I was looking for a reason to believe that Richard M. Nixon, President of the United States, was not a crook."
Thompson was a little-known assistant US attorney in Tennessee when the Watergate investigation in Congress got underway. He had served as campaign manager for the successful 1972 reelection of Senator Howard Baker, a powerful Tennessee Republican.
When the Senate Watergate Committee was established in 1973, Baker became the ranking Republican member and brought Thompson to Washington to serve as minority counsel. Baker, who has been among those now urging Thompson to seek the presidency, did not return a call seeking comment.
John Dean , Nixon's former White House counsel, who was a central witness at the hearings, said he believed that Baker and Thompson were anything but impartial players. "I knew that Thompson would be Baker's man, trying to protect Nixon," Dean said in an interview.
The website of Thompson's presidential exploratory committee, imwithfred.com, suggests that Thompson helped reveal the taping system and expose Nixon's role in the Watergate coverup. And while Thompson's question to presidential aide Alexander Butterfield during a Watergate hearing unveiled the existence of the taping system to the outside world, it wasn't Thompson who discovered that Nixon was taping conversations. Nor was Thompson the first to question Butterfield about the possibility.
On July 13, 1973, Armstrong, the Democratic staffer, asked Butterfield a series of questions during a private session that led up to the revelation. He then turned the questioning over to a Republican staffer, Don Sanders, who asked Butterfield the question that led to the mention of the taping system.
To the astonishment of everyone in the room, Butterfield admitted the taping system existed.
When Thompson learned of Butterfield's admission, he leaked the revelation to Nixon's counsel, J. Fred Buzhardt .
"Even though I had no authority to act for the committee, I decided to call Fred Buzhardt at home" to tell him that the committee had learned about the taping system, Thompson wrote. "I wanted to be sure that the White House was fully aware of what was to be disclosed so that it could take appropriate action."
Armstrong said he and other Democratic staffers had long been convinced that Thompson was leaking information about the investigation to the White House. The committee, for example, had obtained a memo written by Buzhardt that Democratic staffers believed was based on information leaked by Thompson.
Armstrong said he thought the leaks would lead to Thompson's firing. "Any prosecutor would be upset if another member of the prosecution team was orchestrating a defense for Nixon," said Armstrong, who later became a Washington Post reporter and currently is executive director of Information Trust, a nonprofit organization specializing in open government issues.
Baker, meanwhile, insisted that Thompson be allowed to ask Butterfield the question about the taping system in a public session on July 16, 1973, three days after the committee had learned about the system.
The choice of Thompson irked Samuel Dash , the Democratic chief counsel on the committee, who preferred that a Democrat be allowed to ask the question. "I personally resented it and felt cheated," Dash wrote in his memoirs. But he said he felt he had "no choice but to let Fred Thompson develop the Butterfield material" because the question initially had been posed by Sanders, a Republican staffer.
When Dash told Thompson on the day of the hearing that he had agreed to let Thompson ask the question that would change US history, Thompson replied: "That's right generous of you, Sam."
So it was, at the hearing, that Thompson leapt into the national spotlight:
"Are you aware of the installation of any listening devices in the Oval Office of the president?" he asked Butterfield during the national televised hearings.
"I was aware of listening devices, yes, sir," Butterfield responded.
Even as he quizzed Butterfield during the hearing, Thompson said later, he believed the tapes would exonerate Nixon, so he saw no problem in pressing for their release. It was after Thompson heard Nixon incriminate himself on the tapes that Thompson finally decided that Nixon was a crook -- and stopped be ing a Nixon apologist.
"Looking back, I wonder how I could have failed to realize at once . . . the significance of the tapes," Thompson wrote. "I realized that I would probably be thinking about the implications of Watergate for the rest of my life."
Michael Kranish can be reached at kranish@globe.com
© Copyright 2007 The Boston Globe
14 Comments so far
Show AllI think the Republican party needs good actors as their presidential candidates to cover up for the accumulated lies and deceit that have surrounded the entire party for the last thirty years. This is a complete business party, so basically they are looking for somebody with good commercial skills, like a second-hand car salesman, who is capable of selling an unsellable product to the voters. A good actor can present the whole enterprise as something that is actually worthy of support, by ... acting as if the Republican Party actually stands for something, except filling their own pockets.
By the way, my compliments to the Boston Globe, who actually has taken the effort of looking a bit deeper into what kind of human trash the Republican Party is trying to force upon the American people, at a time when most potential voters are still only interested in faces and names.
If any major newspaper would have taken the effort to publish Russ Baker's interview with Bush's former biographer and family friend Mickey Herskowitsch in 1999, all of the disasters of the last seven years could have been anticipated and I don't think many people would have voted for this 'compassionate conservative'.
Give us more ammunition. I don't think the Republican Party can produce any candidate who really IS clean. They all have to be actors.
The main stream media has been gushing over Fred because as a lobbyist he has been paying them for years and the corporate masters know he is their man.
One of them talked about how handsome he is and that the (get this) ladies love him. Now Bill Clinton who the ladies actually did love, frequently, and apparently mostly satisfied them, was a womanizer. The political hack Morris who had to pay for sex is back as a holy pontificator. Note the pattern sexy good - pays media and owners, sexy bad - popular and less supporting and dependent on media.
What kind of a stud or dud these guys are is probably the least useful information the media have to give. Frankly, if they want this information they should run a poll on which candidate would be the best to bang or be banged by. A sample of gay, straight, bi, man, woman, and trans-gender (both kinds of course) and graphic descriptions of the actual acts desired might be good for ratings week. They should make sure they get complete genital descriptions too as an in depth report.
Fred...., he even looks like Barney Rubble's buddy.
Fred Thompson will never be president. He's just a puppet. He was a puppet during Watergate and there is no reason to think he's changed.
How else has he been able to stay on the inside of the political scene?
One thing is sure, no matter who is elected, they will always be controlled by the hidden powers.
It isn't Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush who've screwed the country, it's the super-rich elite who pull the strings. It was that same elite who DECIDED they would win.
Anyone who thinks that will change is dreaming.
Democrats should be wary of winning. The national economy is ready for it's next step in the TOTAL dominance of the elite. We WILL face a devastating depression within the next few years, and if the Democrats win, they will be blamed, especially since they currently control Congress.
Never mind the fact that Congress was controlled by the Republicans for much of the time since 1981 when the domination began in earnest.
This new "Depression" is why the Republican candidates all look like clowns, neither the candidates NOR the "powers that be" intend to let a Republican president be associated with this upcoming depression. They WANT to lose to the Democrats.
Only the "Religious Right" is stupid enough to believe a republican will be president. ("Pass the plate for brother Fred") The "Religious Right" don't give a damn about anything except abortion and gays. Makes you wonder at the perversity of their minds. All they care about is SEX (and controlling it). (Preachers do more than lay people.)
This new Depression will become violent due to racial/ethnic tensions and it will force us into a totally Orwellian society of slaves.
The fascist Republicans will surface at the end with a honey-toothed spokesperson the likes of Satan's own R.Reagan. (Fred's ignorant sounding southern accent won't do, they will find someone else)
Sound bleak? It is. Ask anyone who was once part of the middle class. No manufacturing jobs are left except military equipment. ALL significant industries are either owned entirely by foreigners or owned by "private" equity groups. Who are these "Private Equity" groups, and why do you think they want to stay "Private". "Private" security firms are the fastest growing segment of the "service industry.
My goal is to get out of America while I can. If I stay, my kids will never have a chance. America is only "the land of opportunity" if you are already rich, or if you are the pet bunny of the rich.
Rich boys don't fight wars, especially UNENDING conflicts to obtain rights for Oil, look at Dick Cheney who never served, except for the Trilateral Commission, look at Lil' Bush who played tennis while the under-privileged, drafted into Uncle Sam's army, died in southeast Asia. Slick Willy was too stoned to do anything except kiss the ass of "the man" to whom he sold out. Give Slick a little head and he'll follow you anywhere.
What makes anyone think Fred Thompson would be any different.
God Bless America,
God Damn the Republicans.
Thompson, Hillary and others cons rightfully rejected on the Common Dreams reality become all too viable on the MSM reality.
What bunk! Thompson's revisionist account of his role as "seeker of truth" is simply a cover for his deceitful and illegal attempt to sabotage the Watergate inquiry. His hope that the White House would take in his words "appropriate action" when he spilled the committee's knowledge of the tapes was the expectation that they would be destroyed. If not for Nixon's documented delusional mental condition and sense of invulnerability during this period they surely would have. This same faith in Scooter's innocence is part of that same coin.
Thomson reminds me of Regan.....ratting out his non-rightie friends to McCarthy...and an over-rated actor
So in trying to cheat the system for Nixon's benefit, he actually sunk him...what a screw up
it should come as no surprise that the republicans like thompson, traitor, thugs, liars and thieves seem to me to be requirements for repub candidates anymore.
the feeling of longing for the honor of richard m. nixon is really creeping me out! i never thought it would happen again.
And Thompson was a lobbyist before he was a US Senator and afterwards. So is his son. Lobbying in government is why we are__ where we are today.
When big business, or a group of corporations and or, any individual, becomes stronger than a democratic government, that government essentially is Fascism.
We as a nation of free people, have already reched that point; we have lost or freedoms and our Constitution. We have allowed this to creep up on us,___ we slept while the liars and thieves crept in.
As a member of the House of Representatives, Gerald Ford served on the Warren Commission, which, whatever your view on the assassination of John F. Kennedy, must clearly be viewed as a cover up. Whether it was to hide a crime or to gloss over the facts in order to assure the people of the United States that all was right in the republic, it is impossible to pretend that it was an honest report, seeking the truth, and Gerald Ford gave his stamp of approval to that effort of keeping truth from the American people. Mr. Ford was later put on the ticket as the Vice President to Richard Nixon. Robert Bork was the only person in the Attorney General of the United States offices willing to fire the special prosecutor looking into Watergate. When the Attorney General refused and was fired, when no one else in the office would fire the Special Prosecutor, it was a young Robert Bork who rose to the president's service and fired Cox, setting off a political firestorm. Robert Bork, for his peculiar views on Law and Order, was nominated to the Supreme Court by Ronald Reagan. Granted, he did not make the Court, but the offer was tendered in return for services rendered. It should, then, be no surprise to find Fred Thompson on the cusp of a run as the Republican presidential candidate. It is a party that does not look for those loyal to law or justice, but to those loyal to the Party at the EXPENSE of law and justice. The current president's office is riddled with loyal members of our most DISCREDITED president's former staff. Fred Thompson is merely continuing a long tradition of raising those with the lowest morals to the highest offices.
What a traitor. Is this what the GOP wants? Another four years of Nixon apologists and crooks? Looks like it. Let's hope that the Democratic hopefuls leap all over this and put it into heavy rotation. OMG, no more of these kings!
S&L thefts and embezzlements?
Will have to try to find some info on that!!
Meanwhile, Watergate remains underreported and underinvestigated.
One big clue is Magruder in a PBS documentary done a little bit ago, actually tells us that it was Nixon, himself, who ordered the Watergate breakin.
Magruder says ---- and there may be YouTube video from the documentary? -- that he was in Mitchell's office discussing every-day campaign issues when Mitchell brought up the scheduled Watergate breakin. Mitchell told Magruder that he didn't think it was a good idea, wasn't necessary and should be cancelled. Magruder agreed.
They then called the White House to relate this thinking --
I don't recall who they called: Haldemann/Liddy? --
and Mitchell repeated his thinking that Watergate wasn't necessary and probably a bad idea.
Magruder said that almost immediately he could hear that Nixon was on the other end of the phone. And he could clearly hear President Nixon telling Mitchell that "it was necessary" that they needed to have this done. Nixon repeated that twice.
So there was some information they suspected that the Democrats had that they were very concerned about. Some suggest it had something to do with the coup on JFK.
That's personally what I think.
PS: And, those shocked with the fairly recently revealed "Operation Northwoods" signed off on by the Joint Chiefs of Staff [!!} should also be aware that part of Watergate was the "Huston Plan" -- by John or David Huston on Nixon's staff -- to use an "Operation Northwoods" types of covert activities to prevent the election. This also included "terrorist" activity, murders -- and events to be blamed on others.
So -- just look at how long something like 9/11 might have been percolating in the neo-con brain -- !!!!
I was surprised the article didn't mention the Fund Raisers Fred has held for Libby's Defense Fund.
It also left out his Lobbyist activity, and involvement with the Savings & Loan swindel.
Oh well, can't have everything!
digression into popular appeal
What I've found true about the GOP and Republicans is their general desire to create their national level boys from out of pop-culture appeal, while presenting an outsider, populist sensibility.
Ronald Reagan (actor)
George W Bush (cheerleader)
Arnie (actor)
and now,
Freddie. (actor)
The attack on the limo-loving liberals of entertainment for their alleged political influence appears to be a telltale sign of the propaganda aspirations of the Republican/GOP. The entertainment industry is influential. The Military has PR officers specific to Hollywood Political influence in Hollywood is no less liberal than it is conservative.
What is a total trip is that the only person who entered into the White house who actually was an outsider was Carter. Carter outsider appeal was also a protest vote for many voters. He tried to play hardball inside the beltway, and got hit from all sides -stymied by his own political networks. And this is secondary to the Reagan/Bush-Iranian back-door deals.
The GOP/Republicans were pissed that Carter got into the White House, and they have been using the outsider formula from that day on.
Fred Thompson is no outsider, just like Dubya wasn't an outsider. Fred's got the popular appeal from his TV, he's got the populist tone, he's got everything that might make him seem like he's more like your, old-fashioned, average Joe.
But he's a player.
Thompson had the mindset in '73 that a lot of people have today about Bush and they're as wrong now as he was then. Who needs this joker back in the mix? Impeach Bush/Cheney now and to hell with Fred Thompson.